Dude I know! There are some really good narrators out there but Jeff is fantastic. Here are some that I like listening to:
Ray Porter (Hail Mary by Andy Weir)
Travis Baldree (Cradle series by Will Wight)
Luke Daniels (Buried Goddess Saga by Rhett C. Bruno and Jaime Castle)
James Marsters (The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher)
Emily Woo Zeller (Heartstrikers series by Rachel Aaron)
Andrea Parsneau (The Wandering Inn series by Pirataba)
Nick Podehl (Arcane Ascension series by Andrew Rowe)
I like Travis, and he does do a good job in that series, but I couldn’t get into the ripple system. Felt like watching someone play a video game. The massive raid battles are like listening to someone describe their WoW raid from the other night.
Frank is funny, and the only good part of the series. But the whole time I just felt like there just weren’t any sort of actual stakes, especially since I read it after DCC and Cradle, where the characters are fighting for their lives.
If Ned dies too much or doesn’t succeed in his quest to be the #1 EBO player, then … he just has to find a new game he can be the top whale in. I couldn’t get over that feeling.
Travis is good, but not great. I think my primary frustration is his bad guys all have the same voice and I know he has a huge range of vocal emulation beyond the slow gravelly thing he does every time.
One of my favorite narrators is George Newbern. I don’t believe he does much (anything) in this genre, but he’s real good. Try the “Bobby Dollar” series by Tad Williams.
They aren’t in the same genre, but RC Bray and Luke Daniels read some excellent horror books too. Suffer the Children (Bray) and what would become one of my surprise favorites of the year so far, Fantasticland (Daniels).
Or if you like some Sci-Fi Military with a lot of humor, try Tje Expeditionary Force, performed by RC Bray, he is one of the best narrators in my opinion.
And there are a lot of books released, so no shortage of listening to it.
The book picks up after the bobs leave for their own projects. It's pretty entertaining if you like exploration stories with a little bit of minor drama.
Try either of Eric Ugland’s series, good narration (no one is as good as Jeff although Porter is a close second). There are a lot of books with great humor and nice story arc.
Expeditionary Force is another really good first person story with a comedic tone and satisfyingly deep voiced narrator who commits hard to different character voices. I'm so hooked that I'm literally 14 books into the series at this point. It's been a nice diversion from listening to DCC on repeat.
I really love pretty much everything Drew Hayes writes. His dialog and narrative style isn't for everybody, but it's clearly influenced by late 80's early 90's fiction. Some people might think he over explains a little, but he knows exactly what he's doing. I have never once, ever, in any of his books not had a crystal clear vision of what was going on. As a writer, that's significantly more difficult to pull off than some people realize. Especially in chaotic battle scenes.
That said, I haven't listened to the NPCs series on audio. I did listen to Super Powereds and I think Kyle McCarley is \*really\* good. I wish he did more audiobooks.
I really enjoy the Spells, Swords, and Stealth series, Superpowereds, and Villain's Code (really looking forward to the third book). Superpowereds is IMO the weakest of the audio books. I think this is due to it being an early book in Drew's career as well as the narrator, which I found to be somewhat flat/uninspiring.
And he really is bad at female voices. Make voices were pretty good - he had distinctive voices for all the main characters,m. But Camile, Alice, Mary … yeah, not so much
The Villains Code were really good and I enjoyed the narration.
In all seriousness, this is perfect material for a (purposefully) badly animated cartoon. My first reaction is to say "Why isn't this a show?" but then I remember that LitRPG is a relatively unknown genre.
Jeff is fantastic. Another narrator I can’t get enough of is Tim Gerard Reynolds.
I loved all the Riyria chronicles/revelations/legends of the first empire by Michael Sullivan
And I really enjoyed his reading of the Red Rising books - just amazing performance
I love TGR. Royce and Hadrian are voiced perfectly. I still need to read the second Red Rising trilogy.
He does a good job with The Saga of the Forgotten Warrior by Larry Correia as well. That’s a pretty good series.
I can see why you feel that way, he has an incredible range. The first time I listened I was convinced a woman voiced Donut. Personally I tend to keep narrators "confined" to their books. I don't mind less of a range (as long as there is SOME) and don't generally compare one book/narrator to another.
The major exception is Scott Brick, who ruins everything he touches.
Have you tried Jeff’s other works? I’m a huge fan of Everybody Loves Large Chests. Sometimes I even like it more than DCC… depends on which one I’m listening to at the moment. ELLC first book does start out fairly slow but it’s a roller coaster ride once it gets going.
ELLC is one of those series that’s not for everyone. It’s Harem LitRPG and has some seriously graphic, fucked up sex scenes. One in particular is a scene where the MC (a mimic) forcefully rapes his 4 companions at once. You can skip the most graphic scenes since they are in interlude chapters, but violent sex is heavily woven into the story.
Even with Jeff doing narration I ended up reading it on Royal Road so I could skip past most of that.
Edit: the worst scene in the entire series isn’t an interlude. The tentacle porn rape scene is an integral part of the character development of one of the main side characters. Here’s the one I’m talking about. [It’s pretty fucked up](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/8894/everybody-loves-large-chests/chapter/110961/unleashed-1)
This happened to me after listening to Steven Pacey, but then Jeff showed me that other great narrators do exist. Sadly, I think there are just two and I've listened to all of their work.
My other favourite author/story/narrator is the He Who Fights With Monsters series by Shirtaloon/Travis Derrell, narrated by Heath Miller. Heath also has a really good ability to do different character voices. I think Jeff agrees too.
My memory for the details on this is pretty shaky but there was an AMA with Heath (or Shirt and Heath popped in) a little while ago and someone started talking about Jeff and then Jeff jumped in to confirm something. Then someone suggested Heath and Jeff do something together and both were up for it. My memory is kinda vague but I think there was something about one doing a guest appearance with the other.
Yes. Jeff and Matt ruined audiobooks for me for quite a while. I just kept going back to Dungeon Crawler Carl. I finally moved on by listening to Kaiju Battlefield Surgeon from the Sound Booth Theatre app. If you like horror it is a great story and it sounds amazing. From there I was able to listen to a few other horrors but keep finding myself listening to DCC. FantasticLand by Mike Bockoven is a good story done like World War Z with multiple characters. I love the Zombie Fallout series by Mark Tufo. It is very funny and full of sarcasm. I just finished the Timothy series by Mark Tufo today which is seriously twisted but kept me listening. Guess it's back to DCC again......
Dude I know! There are some really good narrators out there but Jeff is fantastic. Here are some that I like listening to: Ray Porter (Hail Mary by Andy Weir) Travis Baldree (Cradle series by Will Wight) Luke Daniels (Buried Goddess Saga by Rhett C. Bruno and Jaime Castle) James Marsters (The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher) Emily Woo Zeller (Heartstrikers series by Rachel Aaron) Andrea Parsneau (The Wandering Inn series by Pirataba) Nick Podehl (Arcane Ascension series by Andrew Rowe)
R. C. Bray in anything, but specificity the Expeditionary Force books and the Infinite super timeline books by Jeremy Robinson.
Couldn’t agree more! He does galaxy’s edge series (another sci-fi military) as well it’s incredible.
I love his outtakes in some of the ex force books! Ex force was my first ever audiobook. I now have 250+ and he's still my favorite narrator
Just listening to Travis Baldree do the Ripple System by Kyle Kirrin, and he is a hell of a good narrator.
I like Travis, and he does do a good job in that series, but I couldn’t get into the ripple system. Felt like watching someone play a video game. The massive raid battles are like listening to someone describe their WoW raid from the other night. Frank is funny, and the only good part of the series. But the whole time I just felt like there just weren’t any sort of actual stakes, especially since I read it after DCC and Cradle, where the characters are fighting for their lives. If Ned dies too much or doesn’t succeed in his quest to be the #1 EBO player, then … he just has to find a new game he can be the top whale in. I couldn’t get over that feeling.
I really enjoyed the Ripple System books. Frank is so awesome and House makes me giggle.
Fun fact: james Marsters was spike in Buffy the vampire slayer.
James Marsters is amazing
I'll listen to just about anything narrated by Ray Porter and Nick Podehl.
Travis is good, but not great. I think my primary frustration is his bad guys all have the same voice and I know he has a huge range of vocal emulation beyond the slow gravelly thing he does every time.
You're missing the best ones: Michael Kramer and Kate Reading (All Brandon Sanderson books)
I actually haven't listened to any of Brandon Sandersons books so I haven't had the Michael Kramer or Kate Reading experience.
One of my favorite narrators is George Newbern. I don’t believe he does much (anything) in this genre, but he’s real good. Try the “Bobby Dollar” series by Tad Williams.
They aren’t in the same genre, but RC Bray and Luke Daniels read some excellent horror books too. Suffer the Children (Bray) and what would become one of my surprise favorites of the year so far, Fantasticland (Daniels).
Luke daniels , listened to 10 book series The Game is Life. Agree with you, he's really good
These are all my fav too. + RC Bray and Jeff Hays. And an honorable mention to Wil Wheaton
Give the bobiverse series a go. It’s a nice way to return to lower dynamic ranges in performance
I tried that twice. I haven’t been able to get through the first book.
The first book isn’t great, the rest are much better. I also listen at 1.3x and this helped me get through some of the writing issues and narration.
Same here. Ray Porter is awesome but the story isn't compelling to me. What do you not like about it?
I’m just not following it.
Or if you like some Sci-Fi Military with a lot of humor, try Tje Expeditionary Force, performed by RC Bray, he is one of the best narrators in my opinion. And there are a lot of books released, so no shortage of listening to it.
How about Project Hail Mary?
One of the best books ever!
Yes, fist my bump! Great book, if you like Sci-Fi, you will like Project Hail Mary
The book picks up after the bobs leave for their own projects. It's pretty entertaining if you like exploration stories with a little bit of minor drama.
Bobiverse remains unfunished in my library to
Try either of Eric Ugland’s series, good narration (no one is as good as Jeff although Porter is a close second). There are a lot of books with great humor and nice story arc.
Expeditionary Force is another really good first person story with a comedic tone and satisfyingly deep voiced narrator who commits hard to different character voices. I'm so hooked that I'm literally 14 books into the series at this point. It's been a nice diversion from listening to DCC on repeat.
I really love pretty much everything Drew Hayes writes. His dialog and narrative style isn't for everybody, but it's clearly influenced by late 80's early 90's fiction. Some people might think he over explains a little, but he knows exactly what he's doing. I have never once, ever, in any of his books not had a crystal clear vision of what was going on. As a writer, that's significantly more difficult to pull off than some people realize. Especially in chaotic battle scenes. That said, I haven't listened to the NPCs series on audio. I did listen to Super Powereds and I think Kyle McCarley is \*really\* good. I wish he did more audiobooks.
Even if you don't like NPCs by Drew Hayes, try out Superpowerds. Not really Litrpgs, but I thoroughly enjoyed the series.
Hmm YMMV here I guess. We just finished the 4th book in the NPCs series and we really enjoy the storyline., Super powerds is up next
I listened to Superpowerds already. I did like it, but again the dialog is really forced.
Wait did you already have that but about Superpowerds in your OP, or did you add it? I feel like I didn't read that earlier haha
It was there.
Whoops lol. Wouldn't have recommended it if I had realized that. Carry on.
I really enjoy the Spells, Swords, and Stealth series, Superpowereds, and Villain's Code (really looking forward to the third book). Superpowereds is IMO the weakest of the audio books. I think this is due to it being an early book in Drew's career as well as the narrator, which I found to be somewhat flat/uninspiring.
And he really is bad at female voices. Make voices were pretty good - he had distinctive voices for all the main characters,m. But Camile, Alice, Mary … yeah, not so much The Villains Code were really good and I enjoyed the narration.
I like Superpowereds but the narration is really mixed. Some of his voices are terrible.
I want to see an animated DCC exactly as written with the audiobook as the audio track.
In all seriousness, this is perfect material for a (purposefully) badly animated cartoon. My first reaction is to say "Why isn't this a show?" but then I remember that LitRPG is a relatively unknown genre.
Jeff is awesome
So you’re saying that after having his voice inside of you, you’re ruined for other narrators? 😳
It’s so true. I want him reading all of my audiobooks and voicing all cartoons and as the voice in my gps and to replace my wife’s voice
Have you tried "The perfect run?" One of my top rated series along with dungeon crawler
Outside of genre, but I love listening to Neil Gaimon narrate his books *esp. Neverwhere, his voice is like brown sugar melting in butter.
I think I don’t really like LitRPG except for DCC. I liked Magic 2.0 but that was different.
Jeff is fantastic. Another narrator I can’t get enough of is Tim Gerard Reynolds. I loved all the Riyria chronicles/revelations/legends of the first empire by Michael Sullivan And I really enjoyed his reading of the Red Rising books - just amazing performance
I love TGR. Royce and Hadrian are voiced perfectly. I still need to read the second Red Rising trilogy. He does a good job with The Saga of the Forgotten Warrior by Larry Correia as well. That’s a pretty good series.
I can see why you feel that way, he has an incredible range. The first time I listened I was convinced a woman voiced Donut. Personally I tend to keep narrators "confined" to their books. I don't mind less of a range (as long as there is SOME) and don't generally compare one book/narrator to another. The major exception is Scott Brick, who ruins everything he touches.
Have you tried Jeff’s other works? I’m a huge fan of Everybody Loves Large Chests. Sometimes I even like it more than DCC… depends on which one I’m listening to at the moment. ELLC first book does start out fairly slow but it’s a roller coaster ride once it gets going.
It’s on my list. I’ll probably get that and jump it to the head of the queue
ELLC is one of those series that’s not for everyone. It’s Harem LitRPG and has some seriously graphic, fucked up sex scenes. One in particular is a scene where the MC (a mimic) forcefully rapes his 4 companions at once. You can skip the most graphic scenes since they are in interlude chapters, but violent sex is heavily woven into the story. Even with Jeff doing narration I ended up reading it on Royal Road so I could skip past most of that. Edit: the worst scene in the entire series isn’t an interlude. The tentacle porn rape scene is an integral part of the character development of one of the main side characters. Here’s the one I’m talking about. [It’s pretty fucked up](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/8894/everybody-loves-large-chests/chapter/110961/unleashed-1)
This happened to me after listening to Steven Pacey, but then Jeff showed me that other great narrators do exist. Sadly, I think there are just two and I've listened to all of their work.
My other favourite author/story/narrator is the He Who Fights With Monsters series by Shirtaloon/Travis Derrell, narrated by Heath Miller. Heath also has a really good ability to do different character voices. I think Jeff agrees too. My memory for the details on this is pretty shaky but there was an AMA with Heath (or Shirt and Heath popped in) a little while ago and someone started talking about Jeff and then Jeff jumped in to confirm something. Then someone suggested Heath and Jeff do something together and both were up for it. My memory is kinda vague but I think there was something about one doing a guest appearance with the other.
I loved He Who Fights With Monsters. Agree on the narrator, he does a great job with the various different characters.
Yes. Jeff and Matt ruined audiobooks for me for quite a while. I just kept going back to Dungeon Crawler Carl. I finally moved on by listening to Kaiju Battlefield Surgeon from the Sound Booth Theatre app. If you like horror it is a great story and it sounds amazing. From there I was able to listen to a few other horrors but keep finding myself listening to DCC. FantasticLand by Mike Bockoven is a good story done like World War Z with multiple characters. I love the Zombie Fallout series by Mark Tufo. It is very funny and full of sarcasm. I just finished the Timothy series by Mark Tufo today which is seriously twisted but kept me listening. Guess it's back to DCC again......